Cooking Light Curried Cauliflower

 

Today was Merry Produce Wednesday, and I asked for extra cauliflower this week because I had a certain little curry recipe in mind. I love this recipe, and it has been awhile since I’ve whipped up a batch. I love eating curries at restaurants, but I know that they are often laden with an abundance of fat and calories. This dish is a good way to get a curry fix with a minimal investment of points.

Curried Cauliflower from Cooking Light 

This recipe originally appeared in the September 2003 issue of Cooking Light magazine, and is available in Cooking Light Annual Recipes 2004. 

Ingredients:

• 2  teaspoons  olive oil
• 2  cups  thinly sliced onion
• 2  tablespoons  finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
• 2  tablespoons  mild curry powder (The original recipe provided a recipe for making your own curry powder. I let the store take care of that step for me and just used some muchi curry powder from Whole Foods. Muchi is pretty hot, but that’s ok with me. Any curry powder should be fine!)
• 1  tablespoon  minced garlic
• 10  cup  cauliflower florets (2 medium heads)
• 1  cup  chopped seeded peeled tomato
• 1  cup  fat free Greek yogurt (The original recipe called for 1 cup of whole milk yogurt. I had nonfat Greek yogurt in the fridge so I used that instead. If you have some nonfat plain yogurt, I suspect it would work just fine and the points should come out the same. I’ve made it with whole milk yogurt, and it was certainly good, but it does increase the points a bit so keep that in mind. )
• 1/2  cup  finely chopped cilantro stems (I used mostly stems, but some leaves snuck in there as well. It’s fine if that happens!)
• 1  teaspoon  salt
• 8  lemon wedges (optional)
• Cilantro sprigs (optional)

 

Directions:

Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add onion and ginger; cover and cook 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to medium. Add curry powder and garlic; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add cauliflower and next 4 ingredients (cauliflower through salt), stirring well to combine. Bring to a boil (yogurt will curdle); cover, reduce heat, and simmer 20 minutes or until cauliflower is tender. Serve with lemon wedges and cilantro sprigs, if desired.

This makes 8 unofficial 1 point servings or 6 unofficial 2 point servings.

The first time I made this recipe, I was skeptical. I didn’t think that such a huge mound of cauliflower would be able to cook in such a small amount of “liquid” (the yogurt). It does look strange when it is all in the pot together:

Don’t worry. I know it looks impossible. Just make sure to stir it up very thoroughly and the magic will happen. Also, I think it is better to cook it for around 25 minutes over low heat rather than trying to cook it faster over a higher heat. This will ensure that you won’t end up with a burned layer in the bottom of the pot and uncooked cauliflower. The yogurt and the juice that comes out of the tomato will create enough steam to slowly cook the cauliflower to perfection.

I love the way the fresh ginger really plays up this dish. It tastes more complicated than it is thanks to the fragrant and flavorful ingredients. If you like curry, this might be a great way to get more veggies into your day along with a curry fix. I’m planning to eat mine for lunch tomorrow with some couscous and a little extra dollop of Greek yogurt on top. Yummy!

That’s all I have for tonight. Do you have a favorite light curry recipe? I’d love to hear about it if you do!!